Adam Gadahn Issues New Video Threatening the U.S

May 2, 2014

Adam Gadahn, an American English-language spokesperson for Al Qaeda, has released a new video calling for attacks against the U.S.

The video, produced by As-Sahab media, the media wing of Al Qaeda’s central organization, is primarily directed at Egyptian youth, denouncing the current regime and calling for the imposition of Islamist governance. Although the video was in Arabic, it was produced with English subtitles.

The central portion of the video shifted focus to the U.S. Against footage of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Gadahn stated that the “coup in Egypt has confirmed the need to confront America…. It is essential to fight America. It is essential for every youth in Egypt to strive to emulate the martyred champion Muhammad Atta (among the 9/11 hijackers) and his magnificent companions, who sold themselves cheaply to Allah for their Ummah’s freedom, honor, and future. It is essential to wage Jihad against America and inflict slaughter on it…”

Gadahn also used the video to place blame for the coup that installed the current military government and “crimes against Islam and Muslims” on “the Jews and the crusaders.” This follows a common theme of including anti-Semitic tropes in Al Qaeda propaganda.

Some indicative quotes include:

“This criminal Pharoanic clique [the current government] is nothing but the protector of the Jews and the agent of the western crusaders which lives on their handouts and bribes.”

“Power, force, arms, ammunition and leadership of armies must be in trustworthy Muslim hands not in the hands of the secular officers and hypocritical kigns and emirs who are the friends of the West and protectors of the Jews.”

Concluding footage in the video also included clips of the Boston Marathon bombing, fighting in Syria, and terrorism in Israel, including a brief video clip of Jews praying at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, followed by footage of an explosion.

Adam Gadahn has a long history of using online media to call for attacks on the U.S. In 2011, for example, he was featured in a video saying that, “Muslims in the West have to remember that they are perfectly placed to play an important and decisive part in the jihad against the Zionists and Crusaders and to do major damage to the enemies of Islam.”

This video adds to the proliferation of online media that frames Al Qaeda’s narrative in English for international consumption, encouraging international radicalization.